{"id":498,"date":"2020-10-01T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T12:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=498"},"modified":"2020-11-24T03:27:55","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T03:27:55","slug":"an-innovative-confucian-interpretation-by-a-conservative-confucianist-soraigaku-and-its-ideological-influence-on-kaiho-seiryo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2020\/10\/an-innovative-confucian-interpretation-by-a-conservative-confucianist-soraigaku-and-its-ideological-influence-on-kaiho-seiryo\/","title":{"rendered":"An innovative Confucian interpretation by a conservative Confucianist: Soraigaku and its ideological influence on Kaiho Seiry\u014d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In contrast to China and Korea, neither Confucianism nor Neo-Confucianism was fully established as the official ideological foundations of government in Tokugawa Japan. Living in a country where shoguns governed based on his military authority (bui<\/em> \u6b66\u5a01), a Confucian scholar Ogy\u016b Sorai \u837b\u751f\u5f82\u5fa0 (1666\u20131728) reconsidered the essence of Confucianism after being dedicated to Confucianism and Jinsaigaku \u4ec1\u658e\u5b66 and formed the linguistic methodologies, namely Kobunjigaku \u53e4\u6587\u8f9e\u5b66, and the new theory of Confucianism, which is called Soraigaku \u5f82\u5fa0\u5b66. Consequently, he restructured Confucianism, which was considered merely one of the accomplishments in the early days of the Tokugawa era, into a governance theory that deals with the specific domain of politics. His innovative interpretation of Confucianism derived from his conservative approach had a significant impact on the thought at the end of the Edo period and beyond.<\/p>\n

The significance of the rise of Soraigaku in Japan during the Tokugawa period appears to be that Sorai criticised the interpretation of Confucianism by Neo-Confucianism and Jinsaigaku from the perspective of the interpretation of the Way and between righteousness (gi<\/em> \u7fa9) and profit (ri<\/em> \u5229).<\/p>\n

Firstly, he saw the concept of the Way in Confucianism as the method of governing a country by sages in ancient China, and he regarded the study of the sage\u2019s ideal rule as the essence of Confucianism. In Distinguishing the Way (Bend\u014d<\/em> \u5f01\u9053), Sorai developed his interpretation of the Way as the rites, music, punishments, and ordinances (reigakukeisei<\/em> \u793c\u697d\u5211\u653f) established by preceding kings, not the natural way of Heaven and earth as explained by the Zhu Xi and Jinsai.[1]<\/a> On the basis of his interpretation, in Plan for an Age of Great Peace<\/em> (Taiheisaku<\/em> \u592a\u5e73\u7b56), he envisioned a plan of the sage\u2019s technique of the grand Way (daid\u014d-jutsu<\/em> \u5927\u9053\u8853) to establish a political and social system for radically changing the customs in Tokugawa Japan.[2]<\/a> The idea of applying Confucianism to the politics of Tokugawa Japan as an academic discipline to investigate the specific domain of politics may have contributed to the necessity of Confucianism in Japan.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Sorai offered a governance theoretical interpretation of the Confucian ‘distinction between righteousness and profit’ (giri no ben<\/em> \u7fa9\u5229\u306e\u5f01) and argued that they are not in conflict. Zhu Xi discussed righteousness and profit in the scheme of overcoming human greed according to the heavenly principle (tianli<\/em> \u5929\u7406) and claimed from the viewpoint of individual morals that only righteousness is to be pursued. On the contrary, Sorai positively acknowledged the pursuit of profit and suggested that righteousness, as a political virtue, was to govern the people in a way that would benefit them. Furthermore, in Discourse on Government<\/em> (Seidan<\/em> \u653f\u8ac7), he developed the theory of samurai settlement on their land (bushi dochaku-ron<\/em> \u6b66\u58eb\u571f\u7740\u8ad6) in light of the status quo in Edo and advocated ideal governance rooted in righteousness to alleviate the budget deficit. It can be said that he established the significance of Confucianism as political studies by proposing a concrete policy based on Confucianism reflecting the reality.<\/p>\n

Thus, Sorai can be credited with developing a very new interpretation of Confucious\u2019 teachings, while promoting the understanding of Confucianism by directly approaching the Four Books and Five Classics in his conservative Kobunjigaku<\/em>. In the face of his duality\u2014the methodology he introduced as a conservative Confucianist and the innovative interpretation of Confucianism presented as a result\u2014the question arises of which side of him indeed would receive more emphasis. One of the scholars who attached great importance to the groundbreaking aspects of his interpretation of Confucianism was Kaiho Seiry\u014d \u6d77\u4fdd\u9752\u9675 (1755\u20131817), a disciple of Sorai.<\/p>\n

Seiry\u014d was influenced by Sorai\u2019s perspective to capture the actual situation in Tokugawa Japan, and he advocated the theory to govern the society and ease the people (Keisei Saimin-ron<\/em> \u7d4c\u4e16\u6e08\u6c11\u8ad6), which extended the positive view of the pursuit of profit from Soraigaku. Furthermore, he advanced Sorai\u2019s concept, which affirmed the pursuit of profit, and developed a utilitarian logic that viewed profit (i.e., economic rationality) as tianli<\/em>. However, while Sorai, as a Confucian, pursued the Way of prior kings, which he considered the essence of Confucianism, Seiry\u014d deviated from Confucianism and prioritised the practicality of political analysis by focusing on theories that were compatible with the current world, thereby reducing the authority of Confucius\u2019 argument and the Way of sages. In other words, Soraigaku became the ideological foundation of Seiry\u014d\u2019s thought, setting aside the objective of Sorai to grasp more faithfully the teachings of Confucius.<\/p>\n

The ideological influence of Soraigaku on Seiry\u014d\u2019s thought reveals its methodological significance as well. Criticising the Neo-Confucianist approach and understandings of Confucianism, Sorai developed his interpretation, which he believed was truer to the teachings of Confucius. In other words, the rise of Soraigaku has significant implications for subsequent diverse critical debates on the interpretation of Confucianism and provided the solid foundation of unfettered and rigorous discussions that led to the development of academic fields in Japan. Moreover, it is important to note that the government system of the Tokugawa shogunate, in which Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism were not officially adopted as its governing ideology, played a role in the development of free and varied academic disciplines including Soraigaku based on a critical review of Neo-Confucianism.<\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n

De Bary, Wm. Theodore, Gluck, Carol and Tiedemann, Arthur, Sources of Japanese Tradition: 1600\u20132000<\/em> (New York, 2005).<\/p>\n

Lidin, Olof G., \u2018Ogy\u016b Sorai: Confucian Conservative Reformer: From Journey to Kai<\/em> to Discourse on Government<\/em>\u2019, in Chun-chieh Huang and John A. Tucker (eds.), Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy<\/em> (Heidelberg, 2014), pp. 165\u2013182.<\/p>\n

Maruyama, Masao \u4e38\u5c71\u771e\u7537, Nihon Seiji Shis<\/em>\u014d Shi Kenky\u016b<\/em> \u65e5\u672c\u653f\u6cbb\u601d\u60f3\u53f2\u7814\u7a76 (Tokyo, 1952).<\/p>\n

Kuranami, Seiji \u8535\u4e26\u7701\u81ea (ed.), Kaiho <\/em>Seiry\u014d Zensh\u016b<\/em> \u6d77\u4fdd\u9752\u9675\u5168\u96c6 (Tokyo, 1976).<\/p>\n

Yoshikawa, K\u014djir\u014d \u5409\u5ddd\u5e78\u6b21\u90ce (ed.), Nihon<\/em> Shis<\/em>\u014d Taikei 36: Ogy\u016b Sorai <\/em>\u65e5\u672c\u601d\u60f3\u4f53\u7cfb36\u3000\u837b\u751f\u5f82\u5fa0 (Tokyo, 1973).<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> K\u014djir\u014d Yoshikawa (ed.), Nihon<\/em> Shis\u014d Taikei 36: Ogy\u016b Sorai <\/em>(Tokyo, 1973), pp. 13\u201314.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/em>, p. 473.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In contrast to China and Korea, neither Confucianism nor Neo-Confucianism was fully established as the official ideological foundations of government in Tokugawa Japan. Living in a country where shoguns governed based on his military authority (bui \u6b66\u5a01), a Confucian scholar Ogy\u016b Sorai \u837b\u751f\u5f82\u5fa0 (1666\u20131728) reconsidered the essence of Confucianism after being dedicated to Confucianism and … Continue reading “An innovative Confucian interpretation by a conservative Confucianist: Soraigaku and its ideological influence on Kaiho Seiry\u014d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}